CORRECTION: The following column erred in referring to Heavin's comments as appearing in "Christianity Today" and by stating that Heavin "donates 10 percent of Curves profits" to "anti-choice groups." Jon Carroll also wrote that Heavin's recipients were allied with Operation Save America, a radical anti-abortion group. Operation Save America has praised those recipients on its Web site but does not provide financial support, nor does it have a formal alliance with them.

Here are some interesting ideas, some alarming viewpoints, some perhaps amusing jokes and other opinionlike fragments reduced to bite-size chunks for your breakfast pleasure:

-- You will recall the grisly murder of Gwen Araujo, a 17-year-old whose legal name was Edward Araujo Jr. and who had been living as a girl for at least three years.

One of three men charged with the killing, Michael Magidson, had previously had oral sex with Araujo. When he was made aware that Araujo was male, he sought revenge. In court last week, his attorney said Magidson should be charged only with involuntary manslaughter because he was thrown into an understandable rage by this revelation.

I'm not sure which scenario is worse -- that this is psychologically plausible or that the jury would find this information exculpatory. All I can tell you is that, knowing young men as I do, I bet that if in the middle of the act Araujo had looked up and said, "By the way, I'm a guy," Magidson would have said, "Let's talk later."

-- Just so you know: Gary Heavin, the founder of the Waco, Texas-based chain of exercise studios called Curves, is a heavy contributor to several organizations allied with Operation Save America, the rather more muscular successor to Operation Rescue, the anti-choice group.

The organizations he funds are spreading the lie that abortions lead to an increased risk of breast cancer. Planned Parenthood says its operations in Texas are being threatened by Heavin-funded clinics based on the old therapeutic model "you must carry your child to term."

In an article in Christianity Today, Heavin expressed pride in his involvement with anti-choice groups, to which he donates 10 percent of Curves' profits. You may do with this information what you will.

-- The last time Jeff Greenwald's roulette wheel of a one-man show, "Strange Travel Suggestions," had a run at the Marsh, I went and laughed my head off. The Marsh is a small place, so Greenwald obligingly handed my head back to me.

Well, he's back, for a Wednesday-only show at least through the end of May. Reservations can be made by calling the Marsh at (415) 826-5750, or by hopping over to www.themarsh.org. Every show guaranteed different; only a hundred different tales of hilarious suffering to chose from. Recommended.

-- There has been much rending of clothing in the chattering classes about how TV reality shows are taking away work from the true creative people, mostly actors and directors, and placing it into the hands of craven, attention-seeking dim bulbs.

There's some truth to that -- the dimbulbism varies from show to show - - but reality television has focused the spotlight on another category of creativity: editing.

Think of it, you've got seven days' or 18 days' or 39 days' worth of raw footage, thousands and thousands of hours of it, a lot of it unscripted, and you have to create a post-hoc story line out of it. You have to create likable heroes and hissable villains; you have to create tension, surprise, drama, heartbreak, ecstasy -- you name it.

All of this on a tight deadline. It's an astonishing high-wire act, and attention should be paid.

-- Here's a good headline from the Alameda Times-Star: "Children Who Died Violently Recalled." And I didn't even know they were under warranty.

-- Oh good: Now we have shame as an arrow in the governmental quiver. Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute points out that more than a dozen states are posting the names of the biggest tax delinquents on the Internet, in the hopes that fingers of disapprobation will force them to clean up their acts -- or at least pay attention to their acts.

California is one of those states, and its short but pungent list can be found at www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/topdebt.htm. Names include Corona Aircraft in the town Corona, which owes more than $4 million in back sales taxes; two companies with the same address (1121-A Goodrich Blvd., Los Angeles) that together owe more than $5.6 million in sales tax; and the Jar Truck Stop of Pasadena, which owes $1.5 million.